Just How Well Can the Tesla Model X Do?

Driving along the PA Turnpike yesterday 100 miles west of Philly I came across what I thought was a semi towing what appeared to be an expensive sedan. It was a Tesla drafting the semi in the slow lane in order to stretch the range! It looked inane. That is enjoyable cruising? Do a trip to Gettysburg and back on a nice Sunday? Forget about it. Once the "LOOK AT ME" segment of market who don't use a vehicle to go any distance has purchased their Tesla its over. Pure electric cars basically have made only small progress in solving what killed them decades ago. Its the RANGE stupid.

If it's going to look like that photo then the closest competitor is the 5GT. If you Photoshop swapped the front ends and removed the door handles you could easily convince someone they were looking at either vehicle.

Even as the world's #1 BMW fan you have to say that's not what Tesla is looking for. I am thinking it will end up a bit better than that, the Model S has a few awkward angles but works really well in the real world so I am assuming the Model X will be pretty decent.

This has nothing to do with the Model S or brand fanboyism. The question was "what are the Model X's competitors". Well, based on looks (since that's all we have thus far) it looks like a 5GT. Period. It's not debatable, they're the same shape. Large, bulbous, Jennifer Lopez rumped hatchbacks. Tall for sedans, low for SUV's. If you camouflaged the front ends you could literally interchange them and non-car geeks wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Perhaps shape wise the 5GT is most similar but I am thinking the actual cross shop competitors will be X5, X6, GL, ML, MLC, Q7, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, Cayenne and somewhat the Macan, the Escalade. Eventually the Jaguar SUV and to a smaller degree the Bentley and Lamborghini SUVs will have consideration. Essentially the top SUVs from the luxury brands will have to compete with the Model X.

Either way I don't believe BMW is ok with the way the 5GT and 3GT are selling in the US (they might be bigger hits elsewhere). But then again the rational that I believe is true is that both models (along with the X6 and X4) are cheap enough to develop that any additional sales are basically putting cash in the register. The final word will be if the 3GT and 5GT have another generation in them. I am thinking the 5GT might not.

That comment doesn't make any sense. I drove from Montreal to Orlando in less than in less than 30 hours with only the bio breaks required by 3 young kids. Charge time was barely 20 minutes at each stops. How is that a failure for the electric car ? Especially when you consider that the energy cost was 0$ for the round trip. I see people driving very slow, drafting semi and even running out of fuel. Seeing a petrol engine car doing the same thing as in your description must mean that petrol are a failure if we follow your logic.

Energy cost wasn't zero. You just didn't have to pay anything .... yet. So I drove from Philly to Sandusky Ohio. Are there charging stations along that route that enable a 20 minute charge? Bet not. You can drive anywhere in a Tesla where Elon has worked to get charging stations. But you don't have the freedom to go anywhere you want which we petro heads and hybrids have. That is a huge difference. By the way in over a 1000 miles of driving in the last 3 days, that was the only drafting I saw. He should have gotten a ticket for tailgating.

Vette71, Tesla owners don't get their electricity for free. You are right about that. the value of accessing the superchargers is a bit less than 2500$ and it's a one time fee. If you are referring the the value of the battery that is decreasing you are making a mistake. Your petrol engine is also losing value each time you use is. It will consume more fuel because it will get less efficient and to top it it will also lose power. An electric engine can last millions of kilometers,and will most likely never decrease it's efficiency. The battery on the other end will lose range and that's it. There is an unlimited miles warranty on Tesla's batteries for 8 years if there is anything out of the ordinary. And you can expect between 10% to 20% or range being lost during the life of the battery. These number are well overestimated because Roadster owners still have, most of the time, 90% of their batteries even after 4 years of usage.
Concerning your trip to Sandusky from Philadelphia, it can easily done using the supercharger network. there is one supercharger in Maumee, 60 miles west of Sandusky and another one in Macedonia, 77 miles east of Sandusky on your route from Philadelphia.
What you need to understand is that you don't need the supercharger network to use an electric car. We only have one in Canada and non in my region yet, still I drove more than 55 000 kilometers in less than a year. The car is always fully charged at home and with it I can go very far. When I drive for many hours it's usually because I need to stay there for the night and I charge there overnight. Nothing to change my life other that instead of paying 100$ for a fill-up, I pay 7$ (home bill) without even having to get outside.
I have never been stopped from going anywhere, this is just your imagination. Maybe you are just afraid of the change. I'm sorry to tell you, but there is nothing you can do to change this. Dinosaurs disappeared long time ago, same will happen with old technology that use their decomposed bodies as fuel.

Good comment.

But you have to do some "homework" to determine where you need to stay overnight & be able to re-charge your car as well. Like some one mentioned earlier, you just can't go anywhere. You go places that you know you can re-charge w/o a supercharging station (for free).

I travel for biz to some locations that I wouldn't just expect my car to be untouched overnight. Not every lot may have a parking spot near a good power outlet for charging. I'm sure now it's probably a lot easier to find what you need, but it's not everywhere like most gas stations are for the most part.

"Which crossover or SUV do you see as the closest competitor to the Model X?"

None of them.

http://www.teslamotors.com/modelx

Well technically it does not have any competitors, neither does the Model S but I am guessing the Model S competes wit the higher end A7, CLS, 6 series along with the A8, 7 series, and S class. So the Model X will be somewhat cross shopped with the top of the premium SUV. Sure there are plenty of people who will only buy a Tesla for a few reasons, quite a few of them non automotive. But the key is how many sales can the Model X steal from the top of the SUV/crossover segment. The model S has certainly stolen some from the traditional competition.

You poor Icer'ers, afraid of the X ! Girly up, sack up, be not afraid of the X .